The what-seems-like-forever 17 month case by Apple against Psystar attempting to sell PCs pre-installed with Mac OS X may have just come to an end. As a result of selling 786 PCs with Mac OS X pre-installed without Apple’s authorization, Psystar will be paying about $1.3 million in damages for copyright infringement, breach of contract and violation of the DMCA, plus an additional $1,337,500 in other damages and legal fees.

The latest (and most interesting) salvo in the Apple vs. Psystar lawsuit was that Apple wants to identify several “John Does” who were behind the hacking which allows Mac OS X to be installed on generic Intel boxes. Since there’s nothing the internet loves more than a conspiracy (well, maybe one thing) there’s been a lot of speculation about who is the shadowy cadre behind the plan to break Apple’s hold on their own operating system.

John Gruber (of Daring Fireball fame) gives a rundown of the thinking behind that, then offers a counter theory: there’s nobody “bigger” behind Psystar at all…